Tuesday, 24 September 2013

iPhone 5s Fingerprint Scanner Hacked

Yet another flaw in the iOS 7. A German group called Chaos
Computer Club claims that the finger print ID on the iPhone 5S can be hacked.
They have shown this demonstration through a video. If this proves to be true,
then it would be a security concern for over a million people who own iPhone 5S.

They have mentioned in their blog, the group says that
their biometric team took a fingerprint of the user, photographed from a glass
surface and then created a fake fingerprint which could be used with a real
finger to unlock the phone. They
have supported their claim with a video which shows that after repeated failed
attempts, the guy uses a thin film of the finger print and unlocks the phone
with it.

Though physical access to the phone is required and also a
clean fingerprint, but it still does increase the risk of security breach.
Though the fingerprint sensor is a very cool addition to the newest version of
the iPhone, an important question that arises, Is Apple sacrificing its most important factor, security, to catch
up with the plethora of features being introduced by its rival Android phones?

This is the third time in less than a week of its release,
that we are seeing flaws in Apple’s latest iOS 7. It started with the flaw that
was found in the control center. The second was a bug that was reported wherein
the emergency call screen could be used to call any number and now this; Apple Inc. is still to respond to the Touch ID observations and I am eagerly waiting for
their reply.

This is only the first week of iOS 7 and we are already
seeing three major flaws, can’t wait to see what happens in the coming weeks.
An apple update would probably fix the first two issues. But the Touch ID is a
hole in the security feature and this flaw will create concerns for businessmen
who keep sensitive data on their phone.